Dollars and Sense: Personal Finance Challenge

Estimated Completion Time
2 min
Dollars and Sense: Personal Finance Challenge
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About This Quiz

Do you think you know enough about money and doing more than just keeping your head above water? We dare you to take this quiz and meet your ultimate personal finance smack down.
If you own a piece of property in the United States, which of these is filed on public record?
your mother's maiden name
your median credit score on the day you purchased your home
the floor plans of your house
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Yeah, as any cat burglar worth even a trace of salt can tell you, it's pretty easy to get a layout of your house.

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Banking secrecy laws in some countries include prison sentences for banking officials who reveal their account holders' information -- even to the government. But in one of the countries below, officials won't end up in the slammer for passing along customer data. Which is it?
Belize
Cayman Islands
Switzerland
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Belize is right. If a court finds that a private account in the Central American country is growing because of criminal activity, bank officials must release the customer's identity.

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In the credit card industry, what is a revolver?
a person who uses different identities to apply for the same credit card
a person who pays off his or her credit card balance each month
a person who makes payments on his or her credit card balance incrementally
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Credit card companies drool over revolvers, customers who pay their debt down incrementally, while their balances continue to grow. These are the people companies make the most money off of, thanks to interest rates.

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Prenuptial agreements created in one country are often recognized in other countries, under the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Matrimonial Regimes. Which of these countries does not recognize prenuptial agreements in any form?
United Kingdom
Israel
Peru
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If you're all about gold digging but you're bound by a prenuptial agreement you couldn't get around, you might want to figure out a way to get divorced in the U.K.

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According to Thomas J. Stanley, author of "The Millionaire Next Door," how do you calculate what your net worth should be?
gross annual income multiplied by pi
age times gross income, divided by 10
Not calculating it at all. We're all going to die sometime.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Age times gross income divided by 10 is right. So a 30-year-old making $50,000 a year should have a net worth of $150,000.

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Which of these can potentially damage your credit score the most?
making late payments
closing a credit account with a low balance and high limit
making only the minimum monthly payment
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Paying bills late affects your credit score the most. Late payments go on your credit history, which makes up 35 percent of your score. In second place is closing a credit account with a high limit and low balance, because your debt-to-credit ratio makes up 30 percent of your score.

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What is it about prime bank scams that make them scams?
Prime bank officials in certain countries are known for being easily bribed to lose wire transfers.
Prime banks charge much higher transfer fees than other banks.
Prime banks don't exist.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Prime banks, which are described as banks open only to the ultra wealthy, don't actually exist. So there's the scam.

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Countrywide Financial reported that 58 percent of the foreclosures its customers faced were because of:
illness
divorce
curtailment of income
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Curtailment of income was the reason for 58 percent of Countrywide's foreclosures in 2007. Second was illness or medical reasons (13 percent), and third was divorce (8 percent).

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There are a ton of benefits to opening a 529 college savings account. One of them is:
Prepayment plans allow you to pay future tuition at present rates.
Taxes paid on interest accrued within the account are a fraction of normal income tax rates.
After the student who the account is set up for graduates, he or she gets a gift certificate to any participating TGI Friday's.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You can choose to prepay tuition at an approved school at the current tuition rates. Quite a deal if you ask us.

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What's the big leg up that Roth IRA retirement accounts offer people over 401(k)s?
Roth IRAs usually have employer contribution matching programs.
Roth IRAs require you to pay taxes on contributions up front, which could mean a lower rate.
Roth IRAs are tax free.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Yep, tax up front means no tax later on. With taxes generally increasing as the years go by, paying taxes when you contribute generally means you'll pay a lower rate than you will in the future.

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